Anniversary Gift

Just a few weeks ago, my husband and I celebrated our third year anniversary. As a gift to him, I made this book. But this isn't just any book I've ever made--this is Second-Year Law School Letters.

It all started on a dark and stormy night. Oops. Wrong story. It all started last year when I read Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright. My sister loved the book more than I did, but I did love the idea--write weekly letters to your spouse. In the book, the husband would give each letter to her after he had written it. But me, I decided to keep it a surprise. So last year, during the first week of his second year of law school, I wrote a letter to him. And each week after that. The letters became a record of each week--almost a journal entry--of what we had done that week/weekend, new milestones our daughters were reaching, and then an expression of love and appreciation for the little things he had done for me that week. Time passed through Halloween, the birth of our second daughter, Christmas, travels home for the holidays, Valentines day, law school competitions, Mother's Day, and then the summer. I'm a little disappointed to say that I missed two weeks out of the whole year, but I guess that's okay.

So for our anniversary, I compiled the letters into this book and titled it Second-Year Law School Letters.
The front title page:
The second "title page" had all the dates of the journal entries.
And a few sample pages of the letters. I kept the letters to a half page, which was nice because I didn't feel like I had to spend hours writing a lengthy letter.


And oh how embarrassing to notice typos in my journal entries! Don't look too close!


Ways to use this idea:
*Engaged? Write weekly letters during the engagement of all the preparations, stresses, and excitements.
*Pregnant? Write weekly letters of the anticipations of the labor, becoming a mother, weights and measurements, etc.
*Parenting? Write weekly letters as journal entries. I've started doing this as journals for my girls. I record cute things they do and say, their milestone progress, and anything else I think they'd like to know (and I'd like to remember). Here is a link to a journal I made for a friend's baby shower with this idea in mind.

Wedding Guest Book

This is the second project I worked on for my sister's wedding. She wanted a guest sign-in book for the reception with their engagement pictures on the pages. The book turned out to be 8.5x11. I was nervous about it because I'd never done one this large, let alone one with pictures (which means I needed to tweak the binding), but I think it turned out nice.


I used a quote about love from one her fiance's emails in the front cover, and then filled the book with 25 of their engagement pictures--one on each page. We found metallic sharpies for the guests to sign their names or write a brief message to the bride and groom.

On the back inside cover, I put their wedding invitations as a remembrance for their future kids to see.

I was excited with how it turned out . . . and sad to see it go!

Marriage Manuals

While I was home for my sister's wedding, I was also in charge of part of the bridal shower activities. Since there are no manuals for surviving marriage, I made these "Marriage Manuals" that all the guests could write advice in.

(front covers)

There were three volumes:

Volume I: How to Make Your House a Home

Volume II: How to Live Rich When Poor

Volume III: How to Keep the Love Alive

(back covers)

They were accordian books with pockets in them. The guests wrote advice on each topic on the slips of paper, then slid them into the pockets.

(Pre-bridal shower photos)

You could also use this at a baby shower for guests to fill in advice for the new parents.

Catching Up

It's amazing how life seems to move in fast forward when your computer is down! I have so much to catch up on--and I think I may be laying my trusty laptop to rest soon (which means not-so-trusty anymore). For now, I'll try to update on my husband's Mac (yuck). :)

I had an order from a friend to make a mini-journal for her niece who would be traveling a lot this summer. Her niece's name is Wren, and she's just a little toddler right now.

It would be more of a coloring book than a journal, so I put in a variety of pages as well as white pages.


Plus I added a page of stickers that my own toddler absolutely loves. Yes--they seem quite boring for the older generations, but my little girl has so much fun with them.

Coming next . . . "Marriage Manuals" I created for my sister's bridal shower--full of pockets for lots of advice from the attendants.

Another College Survival Guide

I got another order for a College Survival Guide, and seeing as how this order was from some friends back home, my husband wanted to put the text together for them. The mother mentioned Paige's favorite colors were purple and green, so this is what I came up with. The purple on the binding edge was textured paper, and the inside cover was a green textured paper. It was so much fun to do. I hope Paige enjoys it as much as we did!
The table of contents:

A sample page of the text:
And I'm still working on the exciting project I haven't posted yet. It got interrupted with a move, but now that we are almost settled, I'll be booking again soon!

Catching Up

I have to admit that I enjoy booking so much more than I enjoy blogging. So I do often get behind on keeping caught up on posting my latest projects.

So here they are . . .
The first set I did was in preparation for the Get Lit festival of 2010. This festival is a weekend full of writing conferences with published authors and poets. I made these journals for me and the two other girls attending with me--as a keepsake for the weekend, to keep notes in, and for any other writing related things.



And the second project I finished was a journal for my SIL to her mother for her mom's birthday. My SIL picked out the cover design (one of my favorites), then requested a picture of her mother on the inside cover. The title page said "till mamma" which means "to mom" in Swedish.


I'm super excited about this next project that I'm working on. I've never tried anything like it before, so I'm anxious to see how it will turn out. Stay tuned!